Hi Anna.

It seems to me that if your sink is offset from where the range is rather than directly across, you should be fine. Back-to-back sounds like trouble, but elsewhere in the island won't have you bumping butts with your kids if they are at the sink - you'll be standing next to them (facing in the opposite direction, of course) if you are at the range.

I like to work between sink and range so I kept them both on the same side, with just a work island containing pot drawers, dish drawers, ice maker(big grin here) and other drawers. My aisle was originally to be 36" but my contractor insisted on making it 38" so I could open the oven door without having my butt right up against the island. As it turns out, 36" would have been ok, but if your oven is not across from the island, under the cooktop, you should be fine.

If you want to come over and see my kitchen, let me know.

I LOVE, love, love being able to pull out the drawers on the island and reach them from the counter or unload the dw without having to move; that's a big benefit of 36"-38" between them.

Raynag's setup is ideal for a one-cook kitchen. However, if you will have more than one person working in the kitchen at the same time(even if it's one person cooking and one person cleaning up), the offset Raynag mentioned is better. Even better would be wider aisles; again, that's if you have more than one person working in the kitchen.

I speak from experience about the proximity issue...one of our big problems in our old kitchen was the constant bumping into each other while my DH cleaned up and I prepped/cooked b/c the range & sink were much too close to each other (2' apart). And now that the children are beginning to help as well, it was getting even worse! Our range & sink were next to each other since we had no island, but I think it would be just as bad or even worse if they were directly across from each other w/only a 3' aisle.

IMHO, if you're going to have a prep sink as well, it would be better to have the prep sink across (and offset) from the cooktop/range.

Ditto what everyone else has said. Consider that most oven doors take away around 20" when open. That would leave you only about 16" to pass by with oven open - so it might be hazardous to open the oven and get something out of it with someone standing at the sink. Also, it may not leave enough space to stand directly the oven with the door open and put things in/take them out (particularly if you have something heavy and want to bend with your knees). We're in temporary housing and have about that much space between oven and counter. I currently can straddle the corner to take things out of the oven, but am not loving it. Best wishes

Ok, I sort of knew it wasn't right. The offset is possible but not by much because that would mean going further away from the refrigerator. We can also go to a 42" isle. It may also be possible to do the 42" just where the sink and DW are and 36" for the rest of the island. So what do you guys think? If we had 42 and say 15-18" offset, should it be less of an issue?

I'm not a "layout master" as compared with some others in this forum who are just amazing. My opinion is that a 42" aisle would be a huge help, but it would still be a little tight. When you say 15-18" offset, do you mean that there is 15-18" between the end of the stove and the beginning of the sink? If so I think that would also really help. If you meant 15-18" with some of the sink behind some of the stove, I would consider that only a little help and still worry about the person at the sink tripping on the open oven door when they step backwards or getting the backs of their legs spattered if something accidentally dropped coming out of the oven.

I had a tight space to work with and spent hours and hours over just this sort of thing. Something that others in this forum have mentioned is to actually use chalk and/or cardboard to layout where everything is going to be and then walk through it and simulate how you might be using the kitchen. I actually brought DW to site and had her walk behind me while I pretended to do tasks at several points to get a feeling of what the clearances would be like. Best wishes!!!

Thanks chefkev, this is exactly what we tried to do. Rather than using boxes, we moved our dining table 42" from the window and marked a pretend "sink" and a "dishwasher" on the table and a pretend "range" on the window sill. Unfortunately can't move the range completely to the side. The offset I was refering to would be between the centers of the two.

One typical scenario that I am concerned about is when I have stuff cooking on the range and DH or the kids need to wash vegetables, rinse a cup, wash hands etc. Another requirement would be the ability to walk around that person to go to the refrigerator.

42" seems ok, more would be better but may not be possible. In order to open the oven one person would definitely have to step away which I don't consider a big issue.

It would be very reassuring to hear from people who have that same setup. Anyone?

bump

one more try

I have the same set up you are talking about with about 35" from handle of stove to counter of sink or island counter top. My stove pushes out about 3-4 inches for the counter. My walk space is about 40" from countertop to countertop. I have never had a problem cooking in my space with my DH and kids helping out at sink infact never thought twice about it. I often have two cooks at the same time DD and myself. One in cleaning or washing vegs etc and the other is at the stove top stirring, putting things in pot etc. When I open oven to check on something and someone is at sink I just say don't move back.. If I was actually getting something out of the oven I would then have to ask the person at the sink to move.

We have only recently moved in, and for the most part are a 1 cook family, but we have a significant offset, only about 4" at the most overlaps. Also, the oven in my range is my secondary oven, I have a single wall oven and microwave on a different wall, so that's something else to think about if space permits?

paddytc, thank you for the photo. It is hard to tell from the picture so i have to ask, is the sink directly across from the range or is there some offset?

kcinkc71, we are planning to get an additional wall oven too, so I am not so worried about the range oven door. But to get to the wall oven, you'd have to walk past the sink as well so I want to make sure there is enough room for two people in the isle. It sounds like 42" should be ok, what do you think?

annab6, Yes my sink and range are directly across from each other.

I would think 42" would be sufficient, although I wouldn't go any less than that. I just measured ours and it's about 49" from granite edge to granite edge.